Courteney Cox Says She Felt Like an 'Imposter' When She Was Younger: 'I'm Getting Older, I Take More Chances’

Courteney Cox says with age, comes confidence — and a lot of ambition.

“As I'm getting older, I do take more chances and I realize that I just go for things more. I'm more ambitious,” the actress, 59, said at Marie Claire’s Power Play event in Santa Monica, Calif., Monday night, where she was interviewed by the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Nikki Ogunnaike.

“I think you value your time and also, you want to do everything you can,” Cox, who turns 60 in June, explained. “At least, that's the way I feel. The fear that I don't have anymore is if I don't want to do something, I can ask myself an honest question: ‘Do I want to do this? Or am I doing it for someone else?’ ”

Cox went on to explain that she doesn’t worry anymore about saying no. 

“I think later in life, which is where I am now, if I don't want to do it, I don't want to,” the Shining Vale star said. “I'm not mean or short, I just say, ‘I can't make it. But thank you and please invite me again.’ Because you never know. Oh my God, please invite me always!”

As Cox explained, “We all spend a lot of time going, ‘God, if I don't go to that, will they ever invite me again? And was it the best time in the whole world? And I'm not there, and then I don't get to experience that? But I don't really want to go. But....' God, the battle and then not wanting to hurt someone.”

But she didn’t always have this level of confidence, Cox said, sharing that even when she starred as a member of the cast of the global hit Friends, she suffered from insecurity and imposter syndrome.

“There was a time when I was on Friends and I didn't have enough confidence to go after things that I could have or should have,” said Cox, who was 30 when the show premiered in 1994.

“So maybe I was being more of an imposter back then,” she shared. 

“But now, I don't feel like I am because I take more chances and I do more research and I try harder. I think things may have come easier back then,” the Scream alum said. “And now I realize in order to feel great about myself, you have to put the work in — in every way. There's not one thing that I don't give a hundred percent now, whereas before I might've skated by.”

When Ogunnaike asked her, “How do you see or define ambition at this stage in your life, in your career?" Cox replied that she’s trying to do more — not less.

“I think that I have so many things that I want to be better at,” Cox noted in her response. “My ambition is realizing that you can. I do so much. I play the piano. I play tennis. I love cooking. That was something I learned to do during lockdown. Having this business, directing, acting, I think that I just am more ambitious because I care more, so, I am less lazy.”

Cox continued, “If I'm not busy, that's when I get lazy. If I'm not busy, then I get nothing done. But you give me a million things to do and I'll do 'em all. So, I just think as I get older, I realize why not do all of it and try really hard.”

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